Introducing Ariba Procurement: Buying

Exploring the Dashboard

Defining Catalogs

Defining Requisitions

Explaining Accounting

Determining Approval Process

Managing Purchase Orders

Describing the Receiving Process

Using SAP Ariba Mobile

Searching and Reporting

Exploring the Collaboration Process

Defining the Demand and Aggregation Process

Understanding SAP Ariba Buying

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the SAP Ariba Buying portfolio and its capabilities.

The Seven Procurement Processes

These are the seven-procurement process is covered by SAP Ariba procurement solutions during this course specifically we will be covering catalog based requisitioning and Spot Buy collaborative requisitioning non catalog requisitioning and services purchase orders.

PROCESS	ACTIVITY	DESCRIPTION
1. Catalog / contract based requisition	a. Catalog based requisition	Buyer selects items from an e-catalog for purchase
	b. Contract based requisition	Buyer creates requisition that is tied to a contract based on item, commodity code or supplier
	c. Spot-Buy	Buyer selects items from public market place (e.g., eBay, Grainger, etc.) catalog for purchase
2. Invoice against Contract	a. Invoice against contract	AP or supplier creates an invoice against a contract for the purchase of goods or services without a PO
3. Collaborative Requisitioning	a. Collaborative Requisitioning	Collaborative Requisitioning between buyer and supplier supporting, clarification on specifications, spot-quotes and 3-bids, a buy
4. Non-catalog requisition	a. Non-catalog requisition	The buyer enters information manually into the requisition
5. Service PO	a. Service PO	The buyer creates a Service PO and the supplier creates a Service Entry Sheet that is routed for approval before payment is approved
6. Invoice (without contract or PO)	a. Non-PO invoice	AP group creates an invoice in the system for payment OR the supplier creates invoice and routes to the buyer for payment
7. Direct Materials Document Automation	a. Item / Material Master	Buyer selects the item for purchase from item/material master in ERP
7. Direct Materials Document Automation	b. ERP Generated PO, INV, etc.	ERP system generates requisition and PO based on production, forecast and inventory information

Buy / Invoice Process

During this course, we will be covering the following sections of the Buy / Invoice process:

Catalog Based Requisitioning and Spot Buy,
Collaborative Requisitioning
Non Catalog Requisitioning
Services PO

Other areas of the process are covered in other courses or will be discussed with your configuration team.

Which of the Buy / Invoice Processes are being implemented at your company? Do you currently have SAP Ariba at all? Are you implementing other SAP Ariba Modules?

SAP Ariba Portfolio

The SAP Ariba portfolio supports the entire commerce lifecycle from sourcing through to receiving supplier focused features, support, selling and fulfillment.

While buyers can make use of tools for supplier management, strategic sourcing, supply chain, financial supply chain and of course procurement.

An infographic displaying the SAP Ariba Portfolio.

The SAP Ariba Portfolio provides strong support for every aspect of procurement and spans the entire commerce lifecycle from sourcing to settlement and from market to receipt. It enables your organization to control the purchasing process through a comprehensive set of features.

SAP Ariba Procurement Processes

SAP Ariba procurement can be used by businesses in a number of different ways. Some organizations make use of the full SAP Ariba buying and invoicing solution which covers the entire procurement process, from contracts requisitioning and receiving all the way through to invoicing and reconciliation.

Others may choose to use only SAP Ariba buying, which focuses on the procurement lifecycle, but does not include invoicing or reconciliation.

SAP Ariba Catalog Solutions handle a portion of the full contracts and requisitioning feature set and relies on your ERP system for approvals, ordering and so on.

SAP Ariba invoice management solutions contain powerful automation tools for invoicing and reconciliation tasks.

Process

SAP Ariba Procurement

SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing spans the entire lifecycle of a purchasing transaction from requisitioning to ordering to receiving to invoicing and reconciliation.
SAP Ariba Buying covers most of the procurement lifecycle processes, with the exception of invoice reconciliation and payment.
SAP Ariba Catalog covers some of the processes, but it uses your ERP system for approvals, creating and sending POs, and receiving and settlement.
SAP Ariba Invoice Management fills the void of inadequate accounts payable automation.

Control

Supplier and Contract

Intuitive shopping
Compare and collaborate
Goods and services
Sustainable catalogs
Complex contract terms

Process and Regulation

Approval processes
Budgets
Supplier interface
Receipt management
Consolidate ERPs

Automation and Payment

Paperless processing
Invoice automation options
Approval matching
Payment management

SAP Ariba Backbone – Ariba Network

The Ariba network is the cloud backbone that connects buyers to suppliers over the Internet. Suppliers register on the Ariba network, then can host their product and service catalogs there.

Buyers can use the Ariba network to find suppliers and invite them to form a trading relationship.

Buyers then can download the supplier’s catalogs and use them to generate purchase orders via SAP Ariba procurement.

Suppliers can use the Ariba network to process the orders and to send updates to the buyers.

Cloud Backbone: Ariba Network

The SAP Ariba Buyer and Seller network is displayed.

Ariba Network provides a connection point for buyers and sellers on the Internet. Buyers and sellers use Ariba Network as a clearinghouse to share catalog data, route purchase orders and invoices, and exchange information. SAP Ariba creates your organization’s Ariba Network buyer account, which defines how you authenticate yourself and SAP Ariba specifies the features that you support.

Sellers register on Ariba Network, configure their accounts, and store product and service content there. Buying organizations use Ariba Network to find sellers from which they want to purchase products or services and invite them to form trading relationships. After the seller accepts the invitation, the buying organization can download the seller's catalogs. Buyers can then use the SAP Ariba platform to generate purchase orders. SAP Ariba sends purchase orders to Ariba Network, which either stores them for sellers to pick up or routes them to sellers using one of several protocols. Sellers receive the orders and can respond with order confirmations, ship notices, and invoices.

SAP Ariba Buying Features

SAP Ariba Buying's major features include an intuitive user interface which makes it easy to navigate and perform basic tasks. Flexible business rules which can support complex business processes.

Enterprise integration for connecting with ERP systems and other data applications reporting that allows for robust tables, charts and data exports.

Custom fields which can be used to support specific business needs and E forms which are custom forms and screens that can be created to gather more information or data that may not be associated with your typical procurement process.

The SAP Ariba Buying platform incorporates major features:

Intuitive User Interface – Employees who have no experience with automated procurement systems can easily use basic functions.
Flexible Business Rules – SAP Ariba Buying supports any business process.
Enterprise Integration – SAP Ariba recognizes that the SAP Ariba System is used in a heterogeneous application environment where data integration is mandatory.
Reporting – To improve your organization’s spend management, you must have visibility into your spend patterns through robust and easy-to-use reporting.
Custom Fields – Your organization can add new fields to the user interface for your specific business needs.
eForms – eForms are custom screens that are designed specifically to support your business processes that are not related to transactional purchasing.

Solution Features – Intuitive User Interface

SAP Ariba features and intuitive user interface that is web based and simple to use. The interface contains integrated help tips, page-based navigation and Wizards to guide users step by step through various common tasks.

Intuitive User Interface

The SAP Ariba Catalog Home is displayed on the dashboard.

SAP Ariba Buying walk-up user interface makes the application available on all employees‘ desktops through a web browser. No client software installation is required.

The following are some of the features of the user interface:

Simple web-based user interface with integrated help tips. The interface is straightforward and easy for new users to learn.
Page-based navigation with a wizard-style flow.
Minimized customer training costs and deployment costs.
Common look and feel across all SAP Ariba products.

Solution Features – Flexible Approval Rules

Flexible approval rules can be created to require approvals in SAP Ariba on requisitions, user profile changes receipts, custom forms, catalog updates, and other documents.

The customizable dynamic approval rules specify who needs to approve a document. When do they need to approve and why?

Flexible Approval Rules

An approval process flow of solution features is displayed.

With an integrated, dynamically alterable approval flow and extensible, flexible approval rules, SAP Ariba Buying allows accurate modeling of complex business processes. With the availability of email and mobile approval, SAP Ariba Buying is designed to adapt to an organization's changing business requirements.

Approval rules specify which employees are asked to approve a document, such as a purchase requisition. Your organization can use the default rules or it can create custom ones.

SAP Ariba Procurement Integration

SAP Ariba procurement supports enterprise integration with SAP or other ERP systems.

Enterprise Integration

An infographic displaying the integration of SAP Ariba Procurement and ERP System.

The SAP Ariba Procurement provides choices for integrating with other systems such as SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and other Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Enterprise integration is provided by the SAP Cloud Integration Gateway, SAP Ariba Integration Toolkit or other middleware.

Integration Options

Enterprise integration is supported via the cloud integration gateway batch file channel through the Integration toolkit or via web services. Suite Integration also brings together other SAP Ariba modules that organizations might use, like strategic sourcing or contract.

There are 3 options for exchanging data between SAP Ariba and external systems:

Cloud Integration Gateway (CIG) – SAP ERP customers
Batch File Channel (ITK) – NON-SAP ERP customers
Web Services (SOAP) – Both SAP ERP and NON-SAP ERP customers

Batch file and webservices is generally only used with customers who have NON-SAP ERP solutions to integrate.

SAP Ariba Procurement also integrates with SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing – this is called Suite Integration. This is set up for all customers as a standard option.

Data Transfer Option:

Cloud Integration gateway (CIG) integrates SAP Ariba with SAP Batch File Channel (ITK) are generally only used with customers who are deploying on other ERPs, such as PoepleSoft or Oracle.

Web Services (SOAP) can be used for SAP integrations, but is generally used for Non-SAP integrations.

When deploying SAP Ariba Procurement along with SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing these modules are integrated to work together. This is a standard option for customers and integration takes place upon creation of the customer realms.

Solution Features - Reporting

Reporting within an SAP Ariba buying makes it simple to generate reports, export charts or dive deeper into the data without the need for external reporting tool.

Reporting

The Pivot table tab of the Order Summary by Commodity page is displayed.

SAP Ariba Buying provides operational reporting that gives business users, procurement professionals, and departmental budget owners visibility and tracking for spend compliance. It delivers a clean report presentation that is easy to read, easy to drill down from summary to detail levels, and easy to customize. Because the reporting engine is part of SAP Ariba Buying, no additional components are required.

Solution Features – Customizable Fields and Forms

Custom forms provide tools for organizations to design and model documents to support business processes that may not follow the standard purchasing scenarios. Custom fields can also be leveraged to capture and report on additional custom day.

The Overview tab of the Custom eForm is displayed.

SAP Ariba features customizable fields and forms which allow you to build forms specific to your business processes.

SAP Ariba Buying - Users

There are many different types of individuals who use SAP Ariba Buying. Prepares are users who create requisitions or other documents for themselves or others.

Requesters are users who have requisitions or other documents created for them. These documents prepared on the requester’s behalf, still go through the requesters approval chain.

Approvers are users who approved documents in the user interface. The Ariba mobile app, or via email.

Procurement agents approved and finalized non catalogue items and also perform collaborative requisitioning tasks.

Administrators load and maintain data in approval rules. Administrators also provide basic support to other users in need.

There are many different types of individuals within a buying organization who use SAP Ariba Buying. They range from users who create requisitions to managers who approve requests to professional buyers who process and manage requisitions and purchase orders.

Most users work exclusively with SAP Ariba Buying to generate requests, while system administrators use the SAP Ariba Administrator to manage catalogs, approval rules, load and maintain data, assign roles and permissions to groups and users, and more.

Preparers: Create Requisitions and other documents for themselves or other users.

Requesters: People for whom Requisitions are created. Approvers based on this user’s approval chain.

Approvers: Approve Requisitions via SAP Ariba user interface, email, or mobile application.

Procurement Agents: Approve and finalize non-catalog items. Perform collaborative requisitioning tasks.

Administrator: Loads data, maintains approval rules, and provides basic technical support.

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